Why it works: Onion and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Fish Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fish
Remove the head, tail, and skin from the fish.
Separate the flesh from the bones with a sharp knife.
Place the head, tail, and bones in a stew pan with 1 quart of cold water.
Bring the water to a boil.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Make the gravy
Slice the pork and onion thinly.
Fry the pork slowly until light brown.
Add the onion and cook until light straw color.
Stir in the flour and cook for 3 minutes.
Strain the mixture into the water from the boiled bones.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Finish the stew
Cut the fish into pieces and add to the saucepan with the gravy.
Cover and simmer very slowly for 30 minutes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Onion + porktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Fish + porktop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together668 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,121 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together32,460 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fish
- Forms the body of the stew and flavours the broth as it simmers with the bones.
- Salt pork
- Renders fat that browns and carries savory flavour into the gravy.
- Onion
- Cooked to light straw colour, it adds sweetness and aroma to the gravy.
- Flour
- Stirred into the fat and cooked, it thickens the strained liquid into a gravy.
The step that matters
Frying the pork slowly until light brown. Slow frying renders the fat gently and browns the pork without scorching, so the drippings give flavour rather than a bitter taste that would carry into the whole stew.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, pork, flour, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against fish, pork, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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